American engineers are designing and testing more new manned spacecraft than at any other time in history. Here are 7 vehicles that will change how we work and play in space.

Lynx

Lynx

Type: Self-launched space plane

Who: XCOR Aerospace

Launching: 2014

Destination: Suborbital

The Odds: Good

Space is defined by a somewhat arbitrary number—climb above an altitude of 62 miles, the so-called Kármán Line, and an aircraft becomes a spacecraft. There the atmosphere is so thin that, for most scientific purposes, it's a vacuum. Because a so-called suborbital space flight to this altitude requires much less energy than an orbital launch—about one twenty-fifth as much—many private space companies are devising ways to get science experiments and wealthy tourists there. XCOR Aerospace of Mojave, Calif., believes it can offer the cheapest trip. It is already selling $95,000 tickets on a 30-foot space plane called the Lynx. "You're sitting in the cockpit," says XCOR chief operating officer Andrew Nelson, turning the spacecraft's small size and two-passenger maximum into selling points. "It's going to be a real astronaut experience." Unlike capsules and other space planes, the Lynx does not need to ride another rocket to get into space. Instead, the Lynx will fire its four custom-made kerosene and liquid-oxygen rocket engines to take off horizontally from a runway, as a plane does, and then climb steeply on its way to space. The first test flight may take place within months.

HOW IT WORKS

Takeoff: The space plane speeds along a runway under the power of four rocket engines.

Ascent: The Lynx reaches Mach 2.9 as it speeds straight upward.

Apogee: The engines cut out about 3 minutes after takeoff. The craft follows a parabolic trajectory in suborbital space.

Reentry: Thermal insulation on the nose and leading edges of the wings protect the craft from the heat of reentry.

Landing: The space plane sheds speed by circling in a downward corkscrew. The wing area is sized for landing at moderate speeds, near 110 knots—a little slower than that of an airliner during a landing.

Fly Again: Lynx's creators say the space plane will be able to make four flights a day.

New Shepard

New Shepard

Type: Manned capsule

Who: Blue Origin/Jeff Bezos

Launching: Unknown

Destination: Suborbital

The Odds: Good

Visionary billionaire Jeff Bezos, the 49-year-old founder of Amazon.com, has spent more than a decade on a secret project to conquer space. Bezos poured millions of his $25 billion fortune into a venture called Blue Origin, operating out of an experimental launch site he created (with FAA approval) in a remote corner of West Texas. In 2011 the company released footage of a lozenge-shaped preliminary test vehicle, New Shepard, taking off vertically, hovering at an altitude of 548 feet, and then setting gently down. A booster with the ability to land under its own rocket power after separating from a capsule would trim the high cost of retrieving it from the ocean after a splashdown.

A TWO-PART VEHICLE

The propulsion module propels the entire spacecraft off the launchpad. The pressurized crew capsule detaches and heads into space. The propulsion module's main engine powers a vertical landing near the launch site. The capsule returns to Earth under a parachute.

Internet entrepreneur Jeff Bezos kept the existence of his spaceflight company a secret for three years after he founded it in 2000. The company flies experimental vehicles, such as this flight-test capsule, at its private West Texas spaceport.